Board 8 > Giving FFXII another shot.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I always give this game shit, and I decided it's been too long since I've played it and I did not play enough to justify my stance. Plus I have not played the new version. I tried to just over a year ago but it was just very bad timing in my life to be able to pay attention to a JRPG, so I sent it back fter an hour or so.

But no more! Bought the PS4 version on sale and decided to go hard. I would be lying if me wanting to know more about the bosses in the Stormblood Alliance Raids wasn't a factor.

I just reached the first point where you have 4 party members, and I'm enjoying myself! This gameplay was extremely off putting back in the olden days of high school, but I'm finding it a lot more palletable.

I'll be commenting here and there, but my actual stealth reason for making this topic is JOB RECOMMENDATIONS.

I find myself at a contradiction: I want the optimal minmaxing possible, but I REFUSE to not use all 12 jobs.

So I ask the longtime fans: What's the best setup for an all jobs run?

Hated it back in 2007 but bought the PS4 version for $10.

Interested in your thoughts.

Ive had this shit on Steam for years, and have also been meaning to play it recently because Ive had a jrpg itch after finishing Arise.

Interested on seeing your thoughts. Also havent played it since the OG Ps2 version near or around its release window. Never finished it.

My big problem with the original game is I HATED the openness of the license board. The hard job selection of this version is much more appealing.

Also, they appear to have patched in free respecing a good while after the game's release, so you can't really fuck yourself over.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I just reached the first point where you have 4 party members, and I'm enjoying myself! This gameplay was extremely off putting back in the olden days of high school, but I'm finding it a lot more palletable.

I mean, it makes sense that it would be more comfortable now that youre used to MMO gameplay!

It doesn't REALLY feel like that, though it does look like it!

It's still an ATB system at the end of the day,

Oh hell yeah

FFXII so good.

I've always loved FFXII. Never played Zodiac Age, though!

The new orchestrated soundtrack is doing a lot for me as well. I knew they added the CD version of the OST as an option to switch to, but didn't know they added a third, re-recorded option.

Were not talking a DQXI S difference here, since original DQXI sounded like garbage and original FFXII was just standard compression, but it's still very noticeable.

Zodiac Age was a lot better than the original.

Vanilla sucked but the PS4 version is pretty good!

Just got the full party of 6 (well, beat the super easy boss afterwards as well).

Just a couple things. These are all issues, but they're not super notable at this time.

I don't really understand Quickenings. In battle I mean, I know exactly how they work on the license board. I thought it was supposed to be a mini gun, but it just...happens like a regular ability, except I can tag in another quickening to combo I guess?

I get why chests don't show up on the map since it's almost all random junk. I wish the unique chests did show up though, with a visual difference from the junk. Basically what Tales usually does.

I am NOT a fan of quest NPCs or irregular shops not showing up on the map at ALL. As far as I can tell, other than the Hunt stuff, there's is NO indication whatsoever if any random NPC in the street has a quest or something adjacent.

I'm confused about buying gambit rules. It's straightforward, but...why? There are so many of them but they're dirt cheap, I have already bought almost all of them. Just seems like an odd extra step.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I don't really understand Quickenings. In battle I mean, I know exactly how they work on the license board. I thought it was supposed to be a minigame, but it just...happens like a regular ability, except I can tag in another quickening to combo I guess?

You just chain as many together as you can, the more you can chain the more damage is done. You get different levels of them later which makes it a bit more interactive.

I remember loving this back on the PS2. But after replaying it on PS4, it kinda lowered my enjoyment of it a bit.

BlackDra90n posted...

You just chain as many together as you can, the more you can chain the more damage is done. You get different levels of them later which makes it a bit more interactive.

So for now, the timer means nothing? Other than...a timer?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

So for now, the timer means nothing? Other than...a timer?

There's a Mist Charge thing that gives you quickening gauges back on a person and also adds a little time to the timer, I think?

Secret best FF.

Zodiac Age fixes some gameplay issues but I'm afraid it is hard to mask the terrible story and characters.

I played yesterday but it was too clean up side quests. The 4x speed thing is having a huge impact on enjoyabiliy, there's a LOOOOT of walking for some of these in areas with no incentive to do combat for some of these.

So far it's been 2 x speed for normal dungeon an field progression, as well as walking around town (unless it's some kind of event scene), 4x speed for point a to point b side questing/backtrack travel, and regular speed if it's a difficult mob or boss.

I gotta tell ya, the number of times I have pressed triangle to jump in this game while in town on reflex I reaching comical levels.

I keep thinking I'm in Ul'dah.

yeah the speed increases really makes me want to give this game another shot, as that was one of my big complaints with the original. huge areas that are a bore to traverse.

That oil tanker desert was one of the worst areas ever in RPG history from a map standpoint, gotta say.

I just reached the village that comes shortly after keavujf rainy season Giza Plains. Getting to the point where's in going to want to do some serious Gambit research.

I went with

Vaan - Shukari Foebreaker
Balthier - Knight Time Mage
Fran- Archer Red Mage
Ashe - Uhlan Black Mage
Basch - Bushi Monk
Penelo - Machinist White Mage

Just started playing it too, my first playthrough of TZA and third or fourth playthrough of FFXII overall.

I'm just following a recommended setup for all classes:

Vaan - Red Battlemage Knight
Balthier - Foebreaker Bushi
Fran - Monk Time Battlemage
Ashe - Black Mage Machinist
Basch - Archer Uhlan
Penelo - White Mage Shikari

Seems decent so far, will be more effective once Berserk is unlocked

Here's what I've found from researching as many sources as possible: There is absolutely no universally agreed setup. There some that show up more and some that are recommended against, but I've seen a bunch of people agreeing on a top best options, and then in another topic or site none of those will even show up in the top 3.

The only one of those I've never seen brought up before though is BLM/MCH.

Also, this thing is fucking GREAT.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasyXII/comments/6kgikg/final_fantasy_xii_zodiac_age_job_planner/

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I gotta tell ya, the number of times I have pressed triangle to jump in this game while in town on reflex I reaching comical levels.

I keep thinking I'm in Ul'dah.

I had that issue playing XIII last year

Man there sure are a lot of FFXIV beast tribes that I guess started here!

Which ones? I'm not thinking of any off the top of my head!

those wacky Humes

The Gnath aren the sandsea, they're identical in every way but name. The side quest with them even has the hivemind stuff.

These Warrior bird men are clearly prototype Ixal, maybe a combination of them and Amalj'aa kind of?

Nu Mou have been mentioned, don't remember if this came out before or after FFTA.

Now it's possible some of that stuff is in XI and I wouldn't know.

FFTA was a few years before XII. I do believe several of the playable races in XIV have XI counterparts (Lalas definitely do); not sure about beast tribes.

Looking up the sandsea guys yeah, I guess they are pretty similar to the gnath. By the bird men do you mean the mirrorknights though? Those are a normal enemy in FFXIV (in the SE section of Eastern Thanalan).

Naw, the Garif.

Ahhh totally forgot about those dudes

Fought that Gil Snapper for 15 minutes frown to 10% and it started spamming Blizzara. Fucker.

And I know I'll have to wait much longer than just a few levels since this is WITH Larsa as a guest in the party for bonus.

For some reason Decoy just stopped working on Balthier at some point?? Wouldn't refresh.

LordoftheMorons posted...

I do believe several of the playable races in XIV have XI counterparts (Lalas definitely do)

All the 1.0/ARR playable races were in XI under different names.

Hume -> Hyur
Galka -> Roegadyn (male only in XI; they also lost their tails in XIV)
Elvaan -> Elezen
Mithra -> Miqo'te (female only in XI)
Tarutaru -> Lalafell

So the damage stay on guns doesn't actually matter, right? They do fixed damage?

Guns ignore the character's strength, level and enemy defense. The attack stat still matters for guns, as well as things like berserk, focus and elemental affinities.

Oh, hmm, how does that work out with the best gun right now from a shop having less than half the physical damage of the best rod?

Guns have a completely different damage formula and they're heavily dependent on attack. You kinda just have to test them out to see how they'll do. Actually I just remembered there being some enemies that specifically have gun resistance? Not sure about that at all.

Just had Larsa leave the party, have a day off tomorrow so should be able to play a ton. Still enjoying myself a good bit, but still gonna bring up a few nitpick.

Big strategy for a lot of these tough fights is to have a Tank, but they critical spell for Tanking is Decoy...which is a debuff, meaning accuracy is 60%. This being a Tank, that character will likely also have Shell....which brings the accuracy of Decoy down to 30%. You get in a situation where whoever is in charge of puting Decoy on the Tank (thankfully the Tank themselves in my case since I made Balthier KNT/TBM) could sit there casting Decoy on themselves 4, 5, 6, however many times in a row mid battle before it takes.

Steal, Vaan's signature move. You'd think they would get Steal right. Yet in the hundreds of gambit options they've got, there nothing akin to "use until it works". For almost everything else that doesn't matter really because stuff like buffs, curatives, and debuffs don't actually go out if they can't work or have already been applied, but if you set yourself to Steal without some type of limitation, you'll just steal forever even if you already succeeded in doing so.

I'm sure neither of these issues are old news to fans.

My biggest takeaway from the game so far is that if it were a modern release and had, like, some kind of active support and patching schedule, it could be so much better. They clearly kept making changes with every release, hell it didn't have an overlaying map until the PS4 release it seems, and I couldn't even imagine playing this game without it.

It's kind of insane how good this game looks.

I saw that they went back and specifically did a pass on characters facial expressions for the HD release and it shows. FFX looks like butt next to this game.

Shane so many, but not all, or the dungeons themselves up to the point have been so samey and bland. At least they're getting out of one desert environment after another...even if this transition from lush jungle to ice mountain literally one screen over makes Dark Souls 2 look coherent.

I really wish I had more to say so far. There isn't really anything to talk about with this game when it comes to story progress? It feels like they took a game script for a 70 hour game, cut it down to a script for a 10 hour game, then stretched the game back out to 70 hours again. Just got to the outscirts of the empire after fighting the tomato scrubs and ghost.

Yeah, the story just kind of...stops happening for the middle 50%+ of the game

At a certain point FF12 becomes almost entirely gameplay driven. If you're enjoying the combat, hunts, and boss fights, you'll have fun. If not, then you won't.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

palletable

Palatable

Sorry, I couldn't help it

I've defeated quite a few Espers this point and those have been the highlight for sure. Cu was a mother fucker.

One thing though is that I'm finding, like...no use for any Techniks so far at all? Steal and Libra obviously. And like.....literally nothing else.

Side note since I got it on roulettes today in XIV and had to run around it in XII yesterday to unlock Cu: It's really funny to me that they made the Garamsythe Waterway section of the Rabanastre raid in XIV is one of the most stunning vistas in the game, and the you see the source of it here in XII and it's just this flat, bland, generic sewer starter area.